Beginning of Essay
Hemingway’s life began in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, where he was born July 21, 1899. His father was a physician, and Ernest was the second of six children born to Dr. and Mrs. Clarence E Hemingway. His mother, a devout, religious woman with consi ....

Middle of Essay
.... a national newspaper, where he added a year to his age and was hired as a reporter. (For that reason Hemingway’s birth date is often given as 1898 rather than the correct 1899.) Hemingway joined a volunteer American Red Cross ambulance unit as a driver. He was so seriously wounded at Fossalta on the Italian Piave on July 8, 1918, that he recalled life slid from him, “like you’d pull a silk handkerchief out of a pocket by a corner,” almost fluttered away, then returned. It is thought by some literary observers that the experience gave Hemingway a fear of his own fear and the lifetime need to continually test his courage through dangerous adven ....